Recommendations please for a new tent

[northender]

We have a really good huuuuuge tent which is really not that great for just a night or two away ie too long to pitch and put away. I'd love suggestions for a new,smaller tent for the 4 of us (dh, me and 2 dc ages 6 and 9). Have promised dh that mn camping section will come up with the answer for us

Not sure what type of thing you're looking for, but I saw this in Go Outdoors the other day, and thought it seemd like the perfect tent for a family of 4. Nice big porch for when it rains, good sized living area and 2 bedrooms. Might still be too big, but a good 'un all the same.

I know just what you mean because we have an Amazon 800, which just isn't good for a night or two, so I bought one of these for the odd night. TBH, it's very cheap but stood up to quite windy and wet conditions surprisingly well.

Like the look of the Easy camp one surprise that's exactly the sort of thing we're looking for and a reasonable price as well. Our big tent is an Easy Camp and we've not had any problems with it.

we went for this one as a weekend tent not huge but plenty big enough for a couple of days...
www.yeomansoutdoors.co.uk/products/tents/5-6-man-tents/outwell-virginia-5-tent.aspx

oops forgot links thing
www.yeomansoutdoors.co.uk/products/tents/5-6-man-tents/outwell-virginia-5-tent.aspx

How do you feel about open plan? If ok, what about a bell tent? It's really easy and quick to pitch - 15 to 20 mins between dh and myself.

Am liking the sound of the integral ground sheet on the outwell 3rd but a bit above what we want to spend. Tell me about bell tents sal, in the meantime will google!

They're fabulous! I think once you try it, you won't ever go back to another. We tried our Vango Orchy the other day as was trying to decide whether to keep or sell since having the canvas tent, and it just felt awful and loud and we regretted not having used the bell instead.

Belltent UK and Soulpad are the two biggest mid-range companies. We have a tent similar to those sold by Belltent UK (bought in Holland, but they don't deliver to UK), and it is fantastic. If you want to spend more, Canvas and Cast is supposed to be brilliant quality, but the other two are more than enough for the casual user, imo. (If I had thousands lying around though, I'd probably go for the C&C one.) Soulpad is supposed to have really good customer service.

Very spacious, wonderful open feeling when waking up / spending indoors when raining (reading, cards, whatever), sounds lovely when if it rains. Also, contrary to what we thought before owning one, they are extremely easy to pitch and can be done by one (but easier with two, as all things I guess).

Yeomans did a special in the early spring on it so we got for £150ish they were the only stockist though so not lots of specials about..

would love a bell tent but dh v anti also don't have anywhere to dry it if came back damp!

Another one for Bell Tents here, though haven't actually been able to use ours yet!!

We had the same problem as you, huge tent, ages to put up (and down again) seems like you sepnd the whole weekend putting the damn thing up.

We looked at BellTent.co.uk but they were out of stock, looked at SouPad, but apparently you can;t roll up the sides near the door (on the model we wanted anyway - zipped in groundsheet) so we did what any normal pepole would do and drove to Obelink in Holland and bought one from there!

BTW on belltent.co.uk site there is a tent called the emporer which is magnificent, we didn;t get it because its a separate ground sheet, however the lovely man at Obelink told us that in Feb 2011 they will be selling one with a ZIG and inner tent compatable - if only we waited!!!!

Same problem with huge tent here, great for long hols as very spacious but a total chore to put up/down. We now have a very lovely Qechua Base Seconds 4.2 from Decathlon - a total bargain and the easiest tent to put up - ever! There are videos on the quechua website showing how easy it is. It only cost £150 and has two bedroom areas and a living area. Also light to carry and doesn't take up too much space in the car.

the outwell virginia was on our shortlist, we ended up with a vango icarus 600 which is fab,really spacious and easy to put up (its or first tent) we bought ours off ebay for £139 ish,and it was well worth it.

I second the Vango Icarus 600. It's really easy to put up (I can do it myself) and packs down to a reasonable size. It's spacious inside and you can get a canopy that fits onto it to give you extra covered space. I love mine!